Redesign: Orange/Blue

[Cedric_FP]

I redesigned http://www.fictionpost.com from a rather boring plain blue, now to an orange and blue theme.

This redesign was an an attempt to making the forum look smart, clean and professional.

Any and all comments appreciated, particularly ways in which I can improve the design.

Thanks,
Cedric

BTW: Site is http://www.fictionpost.com - Genre: Writing Forums

[kurtbarker]

nice and clean, not that much orange to be called an 'orange and blue' skin...

personally I think the welcome header is too big, takes up half the page and can be seen as obtrusive.

admin colour - light green, isn't very noticable on the white background... and moderator and super moderator colours are the same so looking at usergroup colours, they are the same rank

in the welcome header, you have:

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact the administrator.

the link to contact the administrator doesn't work, you forgot the 'forum' subdirectory

overall, nice simple style... good job

[InsaneContender]

I really like it. Nice and clean.

[kurtbarker]

review part 2...

permissions... sorry, I know you only wanted opinions on the style, but this is what happens when you ask for comments

you enable guests to view the forum, threads, and even read journal entries [which is good, as it allows people to see the forum and the extra sections before having to register, yet you aren't allowing people to see the calender or the member list. I would think that peoples personal journals would be more protected than a list of members... is this how it's meant to be?

[Cedric_FP]

Wow, kurtbarker you single handedly pointed out all the bugs in my forum, hehe.

Yeah, I understand what you mean by the welcome header. I'm in the process of installing the welcome headers hack which should help make it cleaner and simpler.

I really appreciate that you are reviewing more than the style, so yeah, don't get me wrong, every little bit helps. I need to fix up the guest permissions - I figured the journals were like blogs, so they should be available to the public (users can specify private posts for members only).

As for the member list and calendar, I shall definitely be playing with the permissions.

As for the design, I find orange to be a little loud, so I tried to use it subtley, where it would compliment the light blue/white of the site.

Once again, thanks for the replies, I really appreciate anything I can do to make my forum better.

As for the light green, hard to see, but it's my favourite color, so perhaps I'll just bold my name

EDIT: Permissions changed - thanks again for the advice.

Any other thoughts on design/forum appreciated.

[kurtbarker]

no worries mate, I know first hand that other people can see things that you had no idea about, happened to me

Glad I could help

[Cedric_FP]

Originally Posted by kurtbarker

no worries mate, I know first hand that other people can see things that you had no idea about, happened to me

Glad I could help

I took your advice and cleaned up the welcome message for guests. Hopefully, it is no longer too large, nor too intrusive.

Thanks again, it's great to get feedback like this